Catching Up with the Defenders!

Man, do I have so much TV to catch up on...

I went away to Lanzarote, and signed up to a free trial of Netflix to catch up on some TV to watch on some downtime. You can download the programmes so don't need an internet connection, so it seemed an ideal time.

So far I've managed to catch up with all of the Defenders related shows, Luke Cage, Iron Fist & the Defenders. I really enjoyed Luke Cage. The characters were great, and particularly Cottonmouth, played by Mahershala Ali, was really a stand out performance.



The Iron Fist series was fun, but the character of Danny Rand was a little two dimensional. He was a little boring at first, and then he was just constantly miserable, the guilt he had of his past and how he has to do everything alone. All the while, the fight scenes, he wasn't really shown off as the master of martial arts than they proclaimed he was. He didn't seem to fight any better than Daredevil.


The Defenders show was great though. After seeing Infinity Wars, it felt like a mini version of that with all 4 characters coming together. Although it doesn't get past the problem of, if this major incident is happening in New York, where are SHIELD or the Avengers? Even little comments saying where they are, or that there's no time to contact them, or they wouldn't believe them, whatever. But it also highlights these characters and questions why they AREN'T in the Avengers in the first place. With their skills, they would make strong team members. Just wish these guys got more credit.


Now I just have to catch up on Punisher, Jessica Jones season 2...oh, and Luke Cage season 2 isn't too far away...

...sheesh...there's just no enough time!

Avengers Infinity War

Forgot to make a post about seeing this film, so here goes.

WARNING! - I may write something spoiler-y. I'll try not to go into details or specifics, but just in case you don't want to hear anything related to the film, just in case, turn away now.



When Infinity War came out, I put myself on a social media hiatus to avoid any sort of spoilers that may be posted. But the hype was fierce. I was panicking, reading stories of sold out cinema tickets, and was worried that going to see it on the Saturday morning would be impossible. That we would be queuing out the cinema in a line that went on for miles, only to be told that there wasn't any seats available until the afternoon. Wednesday afternoon...

But all that worry was for nothing, as there were ample seats in our local cinema. I guess it's not as crazy as American cinemas, or maybe everyone were just not early risers.

And so, on to the movie...

It was EPIC!

That word gets thrown around a lot, but this film really does justify that moniker. It was great seeing all these characters coming together and interacting. Thanos was well developed, and looked great! The performance capture was really good, and you forgot he is this mammoth purple CG Titan, and just believe he is another actor in this film.

With a film as big as this, there was a worry it would feel rushed, or too much crammed in. True, the time flew by, but just because of how good it was! All the characters 'felt' like the characters from their respective films. There were good action scenes, although, the fight scenes weren't as good as Civil War, or as spectacular as Guardians of the Galaxy 2.

It was however, nice to be very surprised by this movie. With how often things are spoilt with set photos leaking, or critics posting anything spoilerific, I was amazed at how much I didn't really expect from the story. The way the film ends, wow!

And the after credits scene, actually feeling significant rather than just a throwaway...goosebumps.

via GIPHY

Right now, I can't imagine where this story will go. I can throw up theories, but how do they top this? How do they make another two and a half hour epic like this to conclude this story? I haven't read any of the comics that inspired the movie, which, judging by some comments is a good thing as they do give away a lot of the shocking elements in this film, but the 2019 release is looking so so far away.

5/5

Writing Course Finished!

These past few weeks I have been trying to focus on completing a writing course I bought years and years ago, and now with the spare time I've had, I've managed to finally complete it!

The course in question is https://www.writestorybooksforchildren.com/

I was interested in this course as I really want to get into children's publishing. I used to always write stories growing up, but also with my animation and illustration background, and seeing how kids interact with books and stories now, I thought I could write and draw my own picture books.

The course wasn't just about picture books for young children, but more importantly about writing in general. It gave me a lot of tips and ideas on how to approach writing for the future. Before taking the course, I never really thought much about writing a novel for children, but after completing the course, I had a few ideas that I may explore.

The course was eighteen modules with a test at the end of each one, which were all fairly simple multiple choice questions, as long as you paid attention and read properly (I passed with a 92.96% result).

The course really helped in getting me excited for writing and getting those creative juices flowing.

So watch this space.

Blows dust off blog...

It's been one and a half years since I updated this blog. ... wow. I don't know where to begin. What's happened since my last post? What have I been up to? Can I even remember all that!? Ummm...I've worked on some great projects over these years. As a colourist on the Feature Film based on Raymond Briggs graphic novel, 'Ethel & Ernest' which was in cinemas and on BBC over Christmas.

I've worked on a quirky and delightful 52 x 5 minute series called Olobob Top. I really loved that show. The characters were fun to animate, and I hope it does well enough to get a second series as I would love to spend time in that world again.

And finally I've been working on this epic series called Luo Bao Bei. Fantastic characters, art design, scripts and the animation team at Cloth Cat have really knocked it out of the park with this one. I think it's probably my most proud piece of work to date because it really does look fantastic.

So I've finished work for a bit until May and have decided to update all things social media and web presence. I've been slowly working on a new website using wix.com. I fairly excited making it as I haven't made a website before.

I'll try to keep up to date with my progress and anything else that is going on, even if it's just random ramblings. I miss being quite active online, so I hope to get back into a rhythm in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned!